Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Four Top Reasons Why I Hate < $600 (“CHEAP”) Laptop

Below I am going to show you why I Hate < $600 laptop. Its not about slow, and something like the expensive laptop have. This article scope is the brand new value hardware unless point 4. So it isn’t about the ex's flagship that now is cheap.

1. DurabilityI need a road warrior laptop. And I can’t see it on < $600. The one that close is DELL Vosto 1400 that has RoadReady feature (Marketing name for DELL road warrior laptop), but it is more than $600. If you want to buy laptop to stay on the table 24/7 (I don’t say it on 24/7), than this should not be a problem to you.

2. Power ManagementCheap new processor (AKA Celeron M) doesn’t have power management. That’s why when it benchmarked on AC and DC, the result will be almost same. This will result faster battery drain. If you always use your laptop on AC (stick to electricity on the wall) than this shouldn’t be a problem. It also not using “normal” motherboard, so that double no power management. “Normal” Motherboard what I mean is the motherboard that ending with a 5 in last digit, exp (Intel Express 965 PM, IP45 PM, etc).

3. Maximum MemoryWhat is the different between poor peoples and reach peoples? Rich Peoples will ten to buy expensive laptop, will all be full. Fastest possessor, big memory, gorgeous laptop, etc. In few months when they fill the laptop is outdated, they will buy a new one. Poor peoples will buy a cheap laptop that has investment value. What I hate is cheap laptop maximum memory is always half the normal one (2 GB vs 4 GB). Granted I buy with may be 512 / 1 GB memory, but in a few years when I have more money, I can buy more memory. I still can effort buy new laptop. But you know what, in a few years when 2 GB is not enough, I stuck will my old laptop with outdated sum of memory.

4. VGACan someone put Geforce Go 6200 or 7300 or Radeon HD 2400 instead on Intel GMA? Does the low end previous generation VGA is still too expensive to <$600 laptop? You get Celeron anyway so don’t hope too much to get a Centrino logo. So adding this VGA will not broke the Centrino logo.

Bonus: Below are the different between Celeron M 5xx and T2xxx:

Thing

Celeron M 5xx

Core Duo T2xxx

Power Management

X

V (*1)

Core

1

2

64 bit

V (Exist)

X (Nope)

Maximum Memory Supported (bit)

36 bit (*2)

32 bit

Price

Cheap

Cheap

*1 = depend on the motherboard, if the motherboard is also ex’s flagship than it has the power management, else nope. *2 = depend on the motherboard.

The Celeron M 5xx is the new value for value segment. The T2xxx is the dual core ex’s flagship that now the price is comparable.